Michelle Obama spoke last week about her commitment to flexible work and desire to be personally involved in helping it expand.  She talked about how important flexibility and other benefits like paid sick time are in helping people deal with realities of their lives.  In her down-to-earth manner, she got a good laugh when she said that, like her, ‘Everyone should have a chief of staff and a couple of personal assistants; that’s what they need.’ And she noted, ‘There are a lot of people counting on us to figure this out.”  Clearly, expanding access to flexibility is something high on her agenda; she knows how important it is from personal experience.

You can help your company understand that to be in compliance legally, it now must do more than simply allow flexible work options for some employees.  The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) says employers should encourage it and make sure that there are no barriers to workers’ access to it.  It also says that employers should re-evaluate old practices that are obstacles to flexibility (like mandatory overtime) and make sure that line managers fully understand and support flexible work options.  You may want to pass on this news.

This blog post by Dr. Sandy Burud originally appeared in Sloan Work and Family Blog, and was reposted at Georgetown Law Workplace Flexibility 2010.

I’m usually out in the trenches, talking with employers about flexible work practices or others who monitor their attitudes. As I hear their questions and hunt for answers, I notice some that seem to not yet have been answered. So, I pass them on to those of you who do research and discover answers so well. I should say up front that if anyone’s already doing this work, I’m eager to know about it. Let’s get the word out.

I’ll mention three in this blog:

1. Who Requires What Type Of Flexibility?

If you are a union member or potential member, in case you didn't know it, someone has been working on your behalf to make important information available to you.  You may know of the Labor Project for Working Families -- a fantastic advocacy organization that has lead the charge for union members and helped create all kinds of flexibility and related benefits.  These same folks have just created a terrific new resource that includes a national database of information for people who want to understand their rights.  It also has contract language and laws related to bargaining for these benefits, current laws that impact bargaining, case studies, and bargaining techniques.  It's a free online resource network -- the "Labor Education & Resource Network" (LEARN) and can also help anyone working to create a similar benefit somewhere else.  

No doubt there is a powerful trend toward workplace flexibility.  It is no longer a question of whether employers should make it possible, but how well they will do it.  As if to emphasize that point, regulators have made it clear that employers cannot discriminate against employees because they have family responsibilities.  They cannot, for example, hold people with child care or eldercare needs to stricter work schedules or pay people working part-time for family reasons less than others doing the same job on a full time basis.  

It’s Charles Darwin’s birthday.  The‘survival of the fittest’ guy -- except, he didn’t actually say that.  Darwin said survival is not about sheer strength.  It’s about adaptation to your environment. Paying attention to clues, threats, information.  Listening…with all your senses. Being open to changing the way you do everything, maybe even how you think of yourself.Are you a fish, or, since you grew legs, something else?

As we think about what we all need to get out of this economic and environmental mess we’re collectively in, let me share one person’s thoughts.  She says, “Let’s invest in our human infrastructure.”  What a great idea!  Riane Eisler is the author of books like the Chalice and the Blade that change the way we think and live and she has written a paper to the Obama Administration.  I invite you to read it, comment on it and pass it along. The Roadmap to a New Caring Economy

My Norwegian relatives just came for a visit on their first trip to “America”, for the first 3 of their 6 weeks of vacation they get per year (!).  Well, you only get 5 weeks if you’re under 60, but in Norway, they figure older workers could use an extra week.  And, oh, by the way, Norwegians also typically get a little extra pay during vacations  – 11% of what they’ve earned in pay and overtime during non-vacation months.

I asked my 60-something cousins, Leif and Signe, and their daughter Tone and her family the rest of the story, so I could answer the inevitable questions about Scandinavia.  Okay, so you have all this vacation time, don’t you pay a price for it?  

What measure shall we look at?  

Unemployment?  Norway’s unemployment rate is about 1-2% they say (of course it helps to be the 8th largest producer of oil in the world, according to the very bright and informed 15 year old grandson, Jan).  

by Sandy Burud, Chief Strategy Officer for FlexPaths
“First enlightenment, then the laundry” …Zen master

I love ideas. They feed me. I start each day perched in front of an open window, pausing to connect and reading from a book or two. It orders my day and over time, my life.